The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 126: The Battle Of Darlbridge - Part 3

Chapter 126: The Battle Of Darlbridge - Part 3

The screams began.

As Kir came to a stop in the village square, suddenly those who had been imprisoned in the church retreated, shutting the door behind them and barricading it.

Kir spared them only a glance, using the distraction they caused in the guards nearest them to surge in that direction.

One guard fell to Kangetsu while the other Kir lifted and dashed against the church door, then the wall, before letting his corpse fall.

He didn’t want the villagers getting in the way, and if a little fear would keep them in the church, then so be it.

A light brush against his body warned him as Brooker lifted his hand for a familiar spell, but the air bindings might as well have been a stiff breeze as Kir walked through them.

The look on Brooker’s face became one of panic. "You... What happened to the angels?"

"You mean the Executioners?" Kir growled, "All dead... just as you and your slavers will be."

One adventurer quietly came at him from the side, wielding a technique that made their sword catch fire.

As soon as the blade struck, Kir backhanded them. The sword had scored a strike against his side, leaving a thin cut. Fortunately, his thick hide had protected him. He’d barely felt the heat.

Brooker used the distraction to fire off a spell at Kir, but the magic broke against his chest leaving only a faint scorch mark.

After fighting angels, Kir felt that this was going to be disappointingly easy.

"Don’t just stand there! Attack!" Brooker shouted.

As if a spell had been broken, all the armed men took up their weapons. Most rushed Kir, while a handful of archers fired off arrows at him.

As three elves approached, wielding spears, Kir slashed at them with Kangetsu, cleaving their weapons with one stroke before decapitating two of them with a backswing.

Arrows began to pelt him, and while they stung, they did little to penetrate his natural armor as he weathered their rain.

One man, clearly wielding an enchanted sword, poured mana into a strike that managed to piece deep enough that Kir felt the pain in his leg.

Turning, Kir batted the man away with his tail, before pulling the sword free and tossing it aside.

Though he’d already taken out for of them, there were still many more slavers than he’d anticipated.

Rushing into the middle was a bad idea, Kir thought to himself as he used his tail to take out another pair that had tried to use their companion’s attack as a distraction.

The twenty or so he’d thought were all of the slavers were rapidly doubling as the alarm went out. It made sense that if they knew about Darlbridge, then they knew it was a town of over a couple-hundred. They had to have brought a decent fraction of that to raid for slaves.

If he was going to make it out alive, he needed more control of the battle.

Feinting into a squad of enemies that had started flanking him, Kir suddenly turned, bashing one unlucky fighter with his tail. He then leaped toward the group of archers that had just been joined by another half dozen fighters; wading into them in a savage whirlwind of blood, flying limbs, and screams.

Some tried to run, but Kir stomped two of them down heavily before slashing another down with Kangetsu.

Sensing someone on his right, Kir turned to see a giant of a man stomping in his direction, wielding a hammer. When Kir turned to face him, his foot slipped on a corpse, causing him to falter, and giving the giant a clear strike at his chest.

Perhaps it was mavenry or enhancement magic that sent Kir flying into the burning wreck of the village hall. All he knew was that when he landed, it felt like he was in a warm pile of ash instead of a blaze of burning wood and crumbling stone.

With his free hand, he checked his chest, noting no additional pain. He wasn’t keen on repeating his experience with broken ribs.

He’d barely gotten up when the mages finally engaged.

Kir sensed about a half-dozen masses of mana as spell after spell began to slam into the building.

The structure began to collapse around him too fast to escape, so Kir braced himself. Crouching down he covered his soft spots as the roof began to break and fall. A heavy beam fell across his back, but Kir had flowed more mana into his body, and the blow struck no harder than when he’d been parrying one of the Executioner’s strikes.

It still hurt, but Kir knew that with the crossbeam down, there was almost nothing to the building that would be heavy enough to hurt him. With the fire being a non-issue and the mages continuing to cast their spells, Kir decided to hold his breath as he used the rubble for shelter, hoping the mages would tire themselves out.

A few moments more and the spells suddenly stopped.

Kir heard an almost rain-like patter of falling debris over the crackling flames, before Brooker called out, "Make sure he’s dead!"

Holding still, Kir heard a group of adventurers approaching from where the front of the building had been.

He waited... Feeling the weight on his back from the beam, Kir gently let go of Kangetsu as an idea came to him.

A slight shift caused the beam to slide against his back, making a loud crash that startled someone nearby. When nothing else moved, several relieved laughs broke out.

That was when Kir struck.

Rising suddenly, he grabbed the crossbeam by both hands and swung it heavily in an arc from right to left.

He hadn’t expected there to be so many, but by the end of his swing more than a dozen fighters lay broken, smashed by twenty meters of wood that Kir had wielded like a giant club.

The beam snapped as it hit the ground, but by then Kir was already moving.

In a smooth set of motions, he bent, taking up Kangetsu in one hand as he targeted the rightmost mage.

The man barely had time to put up a barrier before Kir broke through it with Kangetsu, gutting him before running a narrow arc toward where the next mana source had been.

There, Kir encountered more fighters, and after a few moments of bloody slaughter, he recognized the mage by the feeling of their magic as they tried to fire off an offensive spell from behind him.

Kir showed the mage the meaning of flexibility as he lashed out with his tail, bludgeoning him in the face with its tip before turning and stabbing Kangetsu into his heart.

His spell, at the very end, turned out to be a lightning bolt delivered with his dying breath. And while it wasn’t enough to lay Kir out, the shock stunned him for just a moment.

It was a moment long enough to help the other mages realize what spells they should use.

Even with a fifth of their numbers down, Brooker seemed intent on goading his men onward, frothing at the mouth as he promised them the rewards of heaven for taking the head of an "angel-killer."

For the second time that day, Kir used a human shield as he plucked one unlucky adventurer off of the ground to intercept a lightning bolt, only for two more to strike him.

If only I could use my damn shields! he thought as the pain sent his blood boiling. His vision had begun to tunnel red, and he could feel the urge to rend and tear surging within, drowning out reason as he simply sought the nearest enemy to kill.

The next lightning bolt to hit him came from Brooker, and knowing its source sent Kir over the edge.

He charged straight for the slaver, mowing through fighters and adventurers alike until the press of bodies and weapons became too much for him to fight.

When that happened, struck wildly in every direction with his claws, losing Kangetsu in the fray as he sought only to destroy those who harmed him. Those who were destroying his mothers’ home.

Time passed in a haze of red.

Pain came and went in sharp spikes, lacking rhythm.

What was left of Kir’s sanity curled up in his mind, trying not to know what the rest of him was doing.

Yet he knew, it was what he’d sworn to do. He’d sworn himself against an evil of the world, one that he could feel in his past life had been present but far more indirect...

And it hurt. He wanted to save people like Noir, Sam, and Namosa... and even Caroon.

And yet... he killed.

And yet... he had forbidden himself of mercy.

And yet...

Something caressed his mind.

"...got him... not sure... I’m trying... Hurry up!"

Kir came to, panting and covered in blood. He stood upon a mound of the dead, and from behind he felt the pressure of someone who had mounted his back and was holding onto his horns.

"Fuck, boss... you really need to loosen up..." Stella said from behind, her voice ragged with exhaustion.